Wacky Wednesday Harlem Shake

Did you all do anything for "Wacky Wednesday"? Well, my school did and it turned out to be a great day! My principal gave all of the teachers a "wacky schedule" to follow instead of our normal schedules. This meant many specials and PE classes were held at TOTALLY different types for each grade level. Everyone came to school dressed a little wacky. Except for my lovely 3rd grade team....we went all out because we are the "fab 5" (the reason for the "F5" on our shirts), ha ha ha!

Our day wasn't going to be complete without a little wacky fun. We decided to have our students do the Harlem Shake. Oh my....it was so much fun--not to mention hilarious to watch on video. Now I know that I can't just tell y'all about it, I have to show you. So, here is our version of the Harlem Shake:

What I found on my desk

My first day back after my "vacation"/family emergency was an interesting one. The sub left a very interesting note about the happenings of my classroom. Students getting sent to the office everyday, the various strange objects that she collected, and other goodies. What in the world happened to my lovies?!?!

Anyway, they were so excited about having me back that I found this note on my desk when I returned:

Today and tomorrow are the last 2 days of our ARMT testing. YEAH!!!! Next week, we are going to start our weather unit. This means we get fill our brains with awesome weather knowledge and test it when our meterologist (James Spann) comes to speak at the end of our unit! They always have so much fun when he comes!!

Miraculous Journeys of Read Alouds

My day usually starts with a cup of coffee and some great breakfast in the wee hours in the morning--getting to school around 5:20 AM. There is just no way that I could get my "goods" together without getting to school at the butt crack of dawn. It's amazing the things that one is able to get done when no one else is in the building! Grading, emailing, planning, cleaning, etc got done this morning.

Being a Christian in the teaching world isn't the easiest thing simply because the field tries to demand that you never talk about God. I've got news for them--I do anyway! Finding ways to tell the gospel story is a great pleasure of mine, and I just pray that the kids pick up on it. Living in the "Bible Belt" makes it easier since most if not all the kids go to church. Therefore, when choosing read-alouds, I have my absolute favorites that are not only wonderful pieces of literature, but they spread the gospel (take that Washington!!) in a variety of ways.

This time around, I am reading The Miraculous Journery of Edward Tulane. This book teaches the kids so many life lessons with the strongest theme being the power of love of selfishness. The rabbit, Edward, is a great representation of Christ and how he "plays in ten thousand places" (there is a book by Eugene Peterson with this title that is WONDERFUL) in order to identify with "humanity". While reading the book, my heart and spirit just swells thinking about all these amazing themes and with the hope that my students are able to pick up on these in some regard. This is part of my prayers for my students. I do believe that my kids are starting to get it with the evident of their writing. Now if they will turn about and put their learning into action, I would be so excited! One step at a time, ha ha ha.

This is what I did: There is a critical part of the story (don't worry I am not going to give it away just in case you want to read it) that gives you a different view of Edward. I asked the students if they had begun to have sympathy for Edward. Of course they had to explain with details. I was pretty impressed with their answers. I figured I would get a lot of "no"s. However, I got a lot of "yes"s. They explained to me how his character had changed, how people deserve to feel safe, everyone needs a chance to become someone special. They really put a lot of themselves into this and showed how they would treat Edward. It made me feel as if these kids were really learning something important about character.

Story of the week: I know that I have already included one, but this one was just too good in my opinion to not include. I have a noise detector that looks like a traffic light and will sound off if it flashes read. Well, one of my students asked me if the police will come if it goes off. I said that I was like the police that regard. Another one of my students comes up to me and asks me if I have a secret lab under my classroom! Ha ha ha! I said..."why...yes, I do." Oh, there are so many things that I could tell my students about the "secret lab"...hhhhmmmm....how devious am I feeling...

Anywho....The same student asked when we were going to have the rolling computer lab so they could post on the class blog. I told them that it would be a while, but I had a plan. The child proceeds to ask me if I was going to have a "sneak attack"! I mean, what in the world?!?! I just sat there laughing. What else could I do??

Middle Year March and Liquor Stores

I know that it's the middle of the year, and it seems a little silly to start blogging about the year now. But there have been a lot of changes going in my life with starting graduate school this year and my students have started becoming more "interesting". I will be wrapping my 5th year teaching 3rd grade this year and it's the best job that I could possible as for. There are days that I come home wanting to pull out my hair, but what teacher doesn't. There are more days where I get to bond with my students and have those special moments that no one can take away.

So, I just started my 3rd round of grad school classes and it seems that these classes are going to be the toughest round yet. Once again, I will have no life, not like I have ever had one. There will be lots of late nights reading and writing papers and researching. Although these classes are going to be the most helpful. They are about cultural change for my classroom, and how to help my "low" children due to culture.

That brings me to the story of the week....I think that I really could have 10, but I will only pick one. We are doing writing and my students were asked to create a prewriting page about their ideal job with 3 reasons why. One little "lovely" decides to say that they best job in the world...the one job that he would LOVE to have about every other job is a liquor store owner! My eyes about popped out of my head. I had to do a double take to make sure that I was reading this right. I began to read his reasons why, and I could not even get past the first one. The child wanted to make mixed drinks. The child listed various liquors and juices needed. My flabbergasted self told him that he needed to pick something else, and the kid was NOT happy! I just kept shaking my head in disbelief. Well, now the job has changed to becoming the host of "The Family Feud".

Next week we are going to make volcanoes with Diet Coke and Mentos. Am I crazy?!?! I guess so. This is going to be real interesting. My students are always interested in weather and natural disasters. This just might be a plan disaster. Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures.